Chicago Teachers Union

2010 Aldermanic Candidate Questionnaire

Valerie F. Leonard
Candidate Name

24th Ward
Office Sought (Ward #)

773-521-3137 I’m in the process of changing over

Home # Cell #

Email address valeriefleonard@msn.com

4111 West 21st Place 60623

Office Address Zip Code

Vote4valerie.voterspace.com;
773-521-3137
Work # Website Vote4valerie.blogspot..com

Candidate Signature

In order to receive consideration for an endorsement by the Chicago Teachers Union,

please complete and return this questionnaire by fax, email or mail no later than
Friday, November 26, 2010 to:

Joseph McDermott, Municipal Political Coordinator

CHICAGO TEACHERS UNION
222 Merchandise Mart Plaza, Suite 400
Chicago, IL 60654
Email: JosephMcDermott@ctulocal1.com
Fax #: 312-329-2562

If you have any questions regarding this questionnaire, please call Joseph at (312) 329-
6242 or (773) 343-5639. Thank you for your time. We look forward to working with you.

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Please answer all questions.

1) Do you believe the next mayor should maintain their current control over the
Chicago Public Schools and the Board of Education?
X
______Yes ______No

Reason I believe the Mayor’s role should be to provide leadership to City_______

government, and that the Chicago Public Schools should be led by a duly
qualifiedsuperintendent, with a PhD in Education. The Chicago Public
Schools should be_ run autonomously from the City of Chicago, and
governed by a separately elected board of trustees. This would allow the
Mayor greater ability to focus on the____ efficient delivery of City Services
while allowing the Superintendent (assuming we adopt this model) to
focus on the business of educating our children and be_____ accountable
to the Board of Trustees, who, in turn, would be accountable to the people
of the City of Chicago. Having CPS operating autonomously from the
Mayor would mitigate the chances of conflicts of interest that are inherent
with the current_ structure, as well as allow the board members to more
fully exercise their fiduciary duty of
care________________________________________________
.

2) Do you believe the Chicago Public Schools CEO should have an educational
background? Example: A superintendant certificate or school-based employment
history?
X
______Yes ______No

Reason The Schools should be run by a duly qualified Superintendent with a PhD
in Education with a solid understanding of the business of running schools
and school systems, experience in the classroom and the ability to ensure
that the Schools are delivering a product that employers need—a
workforce that can compete in a global society. I believe a leader with
these qualities would gain the respect of rank and file educators and be in
a better position to produce the desired results. The justification given for
having a CEO heading the schools has been that we need someone with a
business background to understand the complex budgets and contracts.
However, over the past 15 years, we have seen costs outstrip revenues,
record budget deficits and an increase in CPS property tax assessments to
address budget shortfalls. The strongest school districts in Illinois are
headed by duly qualified superintendents who also have the ability to
manage the district’s finances.

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3) Do you believe Local School Councils should have a voice in the way their school
is governed?
X
______Yes ______No

Reason Local School Council members consist of parents, teachers and residents
at large, who have a vested interest in the school, and who have their
fingers on the pulse of the community. Without LSC’s, community
residents would need to depend on being able to navigate a complicated
central management system within the CPS bureaucracy which may or
may not be responsive to their concerns in a timely manner._LSC’s have
been instrumental in improving the quality of life, safety and academic
performance in the Schools._

4) Do you believe TIF money diverted from taxing bodies, needs to be returned to the
taxing bodies, such as the 53.5% diverted from Chicago Public Schools?
X
______Yes ______No

Reason I qualify my ―yes‖ with the caveat that some of the funds may be
earmarked for capital projects. Currently about 60% of Chicago’s TIF
funds are uncommitted. These uncommitted funds should be returned to
the taxing bodies, less a 10% reserve to seed future development.

5) Do you believe there is a need to increase the number of charter schools?

X
______Yes ______No

Reason 1) The common reason given to expand the number of charters is that
charter schools typically outperform traditional schools. There is
insufficient data to support this claim. As a group, charter schools tend to
perform about the same as traditional schools as a group. 2) Charter
schools are typically operated as nonprofit organizations. As such, they
must rely pretty heavily on private sources for funding. A recent analysis
performed by Catalyst Chicago indicated that half of charter___ schools
have run budget deficits within the past few years. If these deficits are not
addressed, they could soon be closed. 3) there seems to be a push to
mass produce charter schools in order to create a critical mass of schools.
Evidence has shown that it is very difficult to replicate success at scale.
Some charter schools that have had stellar performance over the years
have seen their results diminish somewhat after opening other sites.
Clearly the answer to improving school performance is not quantity, but
quality______________________________________________

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6) Currently, class size limits (between 28-31 students in most academic courses) are
advised only – they are not enforceable. Would you support enforcing the limit so
all children are guaranteed reasonable class sizes?
X
______Yes ______No

Reason There is no point in having advised class limits if there is no enforcement.

To gain a full appreciation for your views on educational issues, we invite you to
expound upon your positions by answering the following questions.

1) If a charter school operator wanted to open a school in your ward, what would be
your response? What would be your process of engagement with the charter
operator and the community?

I would do my own due diligence on the operator. This would include financial
performance, as well as academic track record. I would also investigate the
potential impact and/or benefits to the other schools in the area and encourage an
environment of cooperation. I would engage the community through public
meetings, a master facilities planning task force when it is created, and any local
advisory council created for the charter school. This would include public meetings
that would be recorded and broadcast on CAN TV with video clips made available
through a website, articles in newspapers and newsletters.

2) If a school in your ward was on a list to be turned around or phased out, please
explain the steps you would take to support or prohibit this action.

I would do my own due diligence, including speaking with the principal, teachers
and CPS administrators. I would also analyze the data surrounding school
performance and utilization (independently of CPS). I would hold public meetings
to solicit feedback from the community, and encourage CPS to host board
meetings in the community. After carefully weighing the facts, I would make a
determination as to whether to support or prohibit the action.

3) Please describe any experiences you have had in working with Local School
Councils.

I have not worked extensively with Local School Councils.

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4) What would you do to help improve neighborhood schools in your ward?

I would create a local school facilities task force for the 24th Ward, comprised of
local stakeholders, including teachers, parents, students, principals, CAO’s,
members of community based organizations and members of the business, civic
and philanthropic community. The task force would be charged with the creation
and implementation of a comprehensive plan that would provide input into school
policies, master facilities planning and curriculum development. This plan would
be in alignment with the overarching goals of the Chicago Educational Facilities
Task Force, while addressing issues of curriculum development and school
performance at the community level. My immediate goal would be to work with
CPS to help 24th Ward schools become schools of choice rather than schools of
last resort. This would be achieved by aligning the curriculum of feeder schools
with the requirements of the high schools, and aligning the high school curriculum
with the needs of major employers, colleges and universities. I would also work
with the city and local schools to identify and secure additional funding and
resources from the federal and state government , corporations and foundations. I
would emphasize the community school model in which the schools become the
community center, and provides a continuum of activities and resources for
students, parents and local residents. This includes afterschool and recreation
activities, job training for students and parents and academic enrichment that
includes tutoring, night classes and access to college level courses, GED courses
and remedial education.__________________________________

5) Which would you prefer; mayoral control of Chicago schools, an elected school
board or a mix between elected and appointed Board members? Please explain
your position on how the Board could best function.

I would prefer an elected school board comprised of members representing various

districts throughout the City of Chicago. The officers, including President,
Treasurer and Secretary, would also be elected by the voters of the City of
Chicago to ensure that they derive their power from the citizens and not their
relationships within the board. The board would be comprised of committees that
would report to the board. The committees would be headed by board members
with representatives from the City, including members of the education committee
of the City Council, residents, educators, civic leaders and the business
community. The board would meet monthly, with committee meetings in between.
The board would maintain its own staff, which would be separate from the staff of
Chicago Public Schools. The purpose of the staff would be to support the Board’s
operations. ______________

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6) What do you believe the City Council can do to have more impact on the Board of
Education?

The first thing that needs to happen is to either change the date of the City
Council meeting or the CPS Board meetings. The two bodies meet on the same
day, during overlapping times each month. As a result, Aldermen cannot be at the
CPS board meetings to address burning issues that impact their wards during a
time that their testimony may be witnessed by the public or entered into the official
public record. The next thing that needs to happen is more regular meetings of the
Education Committee. The City Council, while only serving in an advisory role,
could be more aggressive in that role by holding meetings on a more regular basis
and having more public hearings. Over the long term, the Council can work with
the State Legislature to restore the checks and balances between the Mayor and
City Council that were in place prior to 1989.____

7) Cite some specific examples from your experiences with education that
demonstrate your qualifications to receive the CTU’s endorsement.

I am not an educator by profession, but learned to be passionate about education

through my parents. Theodis and Essie Leonard. My father is a retired principal
and former CTU union representative, and my mother is a retired teacher and
member of the CTU.______________________________________________

I am very active in the North Lawndale community, writing articles in the local
newspapers with detailed analyses of the performance of every school in the
community. Other articles include updates on the legislation that created the
Chicago Educational Facilities Task Force, the negative impact of the new
admissions policies for magnet schools and selective enrollment schools upon
school choices for Lawndale students; the potential for school vouchers to weaken
public schools and the impacts of Renaissance 2010, school closings and the
Race to the Top. I maintain a blog, Policy on the Ground, that archives articles
written by myself on others on a broad range of topics, including education.

As the Co-founder of the Lawndale Alliance, I have coordinated annual town

hall meetings on the state of education in Lawndale including financial and
academic performance and the impacts of some of the school policies on
education and our children. I have provided written and oral testimony against the
closing of Howland school and the negative impacts of changes to the admissions
policies for magnet and selective enrollment schools. I have participated in focus
groups conducted by the Chicago Educational Facilities Task Force. I have also
been vocal in expressing concern for the fact that the City committed $30 million in
TIF funds to renovate Collins High School in 2006, and was ready to demolish the
school’s gym in 2009 so the City could build an Olympic velodrome.

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 __As a consultant to nonprofits, I was engaged by After School Matters to study
ways they could collaborate with LISC New Communities programs across the City
of Chicago to align their respective programming to address fitness, nutrition and
truancy among students in after school programs. This included interfacing with
CPS, After School Matters, LISC and New Communities program directors in 17
communities around the City of Chicago; a detailed literature review; surveys and
interviews and the formulation of collaboration structures and recommendations for
future action._______________________________________________________

8) How have you used, or would you use, any TIF funds allocated for your ward to
help schools in the ward?

TIF funds may be used for, among other things, planning, architecture, workforce
development, child care and infrastructure improvements. Subject to fund
availability, I would use TIF funds to plan, expand, improve or build new
educational facilities in the Ward. I would use TIF funds to fund state of the art
workforce development programs that would align school curriculum with
employers’ needs. If the circumstances warrant it, I would use TIF funds to offset
child care costs for teen parents to encourage them to stay in school. I would
explore the use of TIF funds to make infrastructure improvements around schools,
including enhanced lighting, increasing access to high speed internet and
improving sidewalks, curbs and gutters. I would also explore the use of TIF funds
to improve open space and playgrounds on and near school campuses.

9) How would you collaborate with the Chicago Teachers Union to help shape the
policies and practices of the Chicago Public Schools?

I would participate on ad hoc committees and task forces to address key issues
such as developing culturally relevant curricula that keep students engaged while
meeting the requirements to be gainfully employed or enrolled in a college of their
choice. Other issues include increasing graduations rates, reducing dropout rates
and truancy, and restorative justice. A great model would be the work that is being
done by the Chicago Educational Facilities Task Force. The Task force has
worked with the State Legislature to identify key issues surrounding school
facilities, school openings, closings and boundaries. They have created a task
force consisting of key stakeholders within the Legislature, CTU, CPS and
community to conduct research in to actual practices and make recommendations
for improvements.

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Please list three references from educators or community activists that you’ve worked with in
the past that we may contact to verify your efforts toward supporting education.

Name Position/Relationship Phone #

to Candidate 708-383-1053
Consultant-Illinois Educational CELL PH: 312-285-5773
Ms. Jacqueline Leavy Facilities Task Force/Mentor
Program Director-Designs for
312-326-7252
Valencia Rias Change/Colleague
Black Star Project/Colleague 773.285.9600
Ms. Cynthia Flowers

JM:oteg/743/yv 11-15-10
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